Abi's Workshop: Asian Girls Ignite
Isn't it true that magic happens in the summer sun? Asian Girls Ignite (AGI) must have had this in mind when they based their summer camp RepresentAsian Matters 2025: I am Powerful in Denver's own Botanic Gardens. With a summer camp built upon a foundation of connection, community, and celebrated uniqueness, it made perfect sense that it would take place in a literal ecosystem! We were surrounded by beautiful plants, all bringing their own unique beauty and function to a thriving garden connected at the root. I was so excited to dig into these concepts and collaborate with them on a workshop as we uplift the same beautiful human themes at KUVO Jazz Public Radio.
Check out this sweet recap video we created of this special day!
AGI is an inclusive space where young girls and gender-expansive youth can feel a sense of belonging and celebrate their identity as part of the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander or AANHPI community. This year, they introduced another layer to their storytelling-focused, youth-empowering summer camp. The organization asked non-AANHPI identifying storytellers to join, emphasizing that all cultures intertwine in community. Annabel Kaey, program coordinator at AGI, joined The Morning Set earlier this year when registration opened to share more on the history and mission of this organization, and it was from this experience that I got asked to be a storyteller for their 2025 session.
AGI partners with storytellers, aka community members, across Colorado to lead workshops centered around the day's themes. This year, they covered themes like Trailblazers and History, Legacy and Dreams, and Connection and Community, which is the day my workshop about interviews and conversation fell on. After a few pointers in active listening, question considerations, and a reminder to embrace curiosity, the students began crafting their questions. What's cool is that this program follows a full-circle approach, meaning middle schoolers bond in smaller groups guided by a high schooler who sometimes had been in the program themselves as a younger student in years prior. By Wednesday, you could tell they had developed friendships and had settled into their own group's personal style.
Each group approached the theme through a different topic: Food, Art, Community Care, and Family Tradition, and guided their questions to those beacons. After completing this part of the workshop and earning their official AGI Press Passes, they scattered on a self-guided scavenger hunt. The older students guided the younger ones to specific Botanic Garden employees who had volunteered their time to be involved in the workshop. From there, they asked their questions and learned about each individual’s story.
I tagged along, and let me tell you, the questions were so thoughtful and sweet. They ranged from "Do you think bees are cute?" to "What's your most cherished memory around food?" and many other fantastically creative inquiries. And though there was a bit of confusion in the crafting stage on what a follow-up question was, their intuition took over and they effortlessly dove deeper into the stories these kind people were sharing with them. Notes were being scribbled down, heads tilted intently listening, and each chat was capped with a photo before they were off again, giggling while running to their next destination through the green, lush landscape.
Back in the classroom, craft paper, markers, and scissors now lay upon the tables, and these campers now brought a different creative touch to the workshop. Cutting, drawing, positioning stickers, and printing out the photos they took in the field, they began working on their reflection zines. They referenced the notes they took throughout their conversations and then visually depicted what they learned from the people they talked with. Hearing what stuck with them from these conversations and then seeing their minds (and hands) at work was so magical. They really took care with the opinions, memories, and stories folks at the gardens had entrusted them with. By the end, we had posters both individually and group-created, each unique to their style and the stories they were telling.
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